A Comparative Analysis of the Women’s Struggles: A Study on Autobiographic Novels of Mannu Bhandari & Maitreyi Pushpa

Abstract

The pesent research paper mostly focused on the compares of  two Hindi autobiographical narratives by Mannu Bhandari and Maitreyi Pushpa. The purpose is to understand how they portray women’s everyday lives and how narrative style shapes meaning. The research design of present research  is qualitative and comparative. The approach is interpretivist with a feminist based on the primary texts from “Ek Kahani Yeh Bhi and Kasturi Kundal Base”. The methods are close reading, thematic coding, and analysis of voice, tone, form, and pace. Tables and simple graphs are used to summarize patterns while The study has two objectives. The first objective is to compare the depiction of women’s lives and show where the texts converge and where they differ. The second objective is to analyze narrative style and personal voice and show how form creates meaning and emotion. The findings show shared pressures in both texts. There is heavy domestic labour, unequal marriage rules, and a constant pull of duty over selfhood. The texture of these pressures differs by context. In Bhandari’s urban literary world, control works through reputation and quiet gatekeeping, and change grows slowly by steady work. In Pushpa’s rural and small-town world, control is explicit and policed, and change appears through visible and eventful acts. Convergence is clear in domestic labour, marriage, and the work–duty conflict. Divergence is clear in mobility, voice, and agency.